[Gabriel Synthesis]

here's an article from david gillingham of the counting crows on sharing music and dvds in which he raises a few interesting points,

Quote

For art's sake

* 15 April 2006
* From New Scientist Print Edition. Subscribe and get 4 free issues.
* Charles Gillingham Los Angeles, California, US

While expressing his doubts about new DVD copy protection schemes, Edward Felten asks why the public should support digital rights management software (11 March, p 42). As a recording artist who has watched the collapse of the music business at first hand, I think I am in a position to answer this.

If sharing movies becomes as common as sharing music, DVD sales will inevitably drop. The film industry will have less money overall, a wave of consolidations and layoffs will follow, and studios and production companies will stop financing projects that they think are in any way risky.

Instead they'll concentrate on the lowest common denominator: star power, sex, violence - obvious and recycled stories. This is exactly what has happened in the music business in the last 10 years: promotion budgets directed primarily at "pop" artists (good looking performers of questionable artistic merit) or at music concerned primarily with violence or sex.

The public should support all "digital rights management software" because, in the end, it means that more movies will be produced, and they will be of better quality. Copy protection is fair and it's right and it's good for art, for artists and for anyone who enjoys art.
Counting Crows

just wondering if anyone agrees with what he says or thinks he's wrong and why

(taken from newscientist.com)

[Helen SD]

i agree with him.

Good quality Cds can be produced with very little money... but good quality movies, especially independant ones, need alot of funding. Music and media are art after all and should be appretiated and paid for.

[The Phlegmy One!111]

I know he's right, but one day I will buy all the films I've downloaded. By the time I'm 30 hopefully. :-(

[Echoes]

hmmm... big budget films... King Kong
hmmm... little budget films... Reservoir Dogs

The argument that the quality of films will go down because they're making less money is COMPLETE SHIT. If anything it will ensure a reliance of good scripts and quality acting, rather than ridiculously overpaid CGI studios and talentless fucking actors charging millions to passionleslly read out shitty lines written by a team of monkeys with typewriters.

Kirsten Dunce and Keanu Reeves are the real pirates of the film industry - not us.

I don't deny the current downloading trend is damaging the film industry. But fame, star culture and cookie-cutter 'blockbusters' poisoned it long before the Internet was invented. Only now, they're reaping what they've sown.

[The Phlegmy One!111]

According to the new 2006 DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act), backed by the movie/music industry and George Bush admin, piracy can now get you 10 years of jail. For comparison means, selling child pornography or even assaulting someone, gets you 7 years of jail.

Interesting.

[Gabriel Synthesis]

does this mean that people will just start stealing videos and albums from shops because you don't get as long for that

[Adamski]

Following on from Bradders' point, low budgets aren't detrimental to the quality of music churned out either. The move toward distribution has actually significantly increased the market share of indie labels recently (my source being an article in Rolling Stone of Jan this year). The number of musicians able to release their own music is also increasing very rapidly due to internet promotion/distribution.

The next point of discussion is whether piracy incentivises labels to churn out manufactured pop; as i see it this is more a product of our brand-based economy - this stuff wouldn't be released if people didn't buy it, and the big four with their huge budgets have hit on a winning formula in delivering the complete package in terms of people who look good and (thanks to new technology) sound good too.

The fact is that 'good music', whatever that means to you, is still there if you look for it. Meanwhile, labels like XL and Domino still behave like indies even though their acts are very much mainstream; their portfolio is currently VERY impressive, and they continue to release very high quality music.

The internet was always going to revolutionise the media; the reason the transition has been so painful is (IMHO) solely due to inertia and resistance to change in the music industry itself. This has of course opened the door for small, dynamic indies to take market share, as I said before; ultimately I think the future will be in on-demand subscription services. That way no consumer will 'own' any music at all, but simply pay for the right to listen to what they want, when they want.

DRM is all well and good but at best I see it as a transitional stage until the technology gets really sorted; at worst it's another stick in the mud as luddite musos attempt to cling to an outdated business model and refuse to accept that their industry has and will continue to fundementally change in terms of distribution and promotion.

~~~
Adamski, your resident industry boffin.

[Wengistein]

I just really don't like how people download movies just because they "don't have enough money." It really saddens me to see such good movies being on the internet for free.

[TheDissident]

I think it should be ilegal to punish people for making copies of media items. I mean, what's next, we are going to jail for taking fotocopies, for copying books, for having printers in our PCs, for sharing photos, for having VHS and DVD-Rs, etc?

[Zenabi]

People were copying shit long before Napster. I mean when cassettes came out, people were sharing music all over the place. Same thing with movies. Only difference nowdays is that people are getting their media from a different source. I'm not saying it's right or wrong but it is a battle that can never be won. Sure you can sue 500 kids but as long as there's recordable cds and dvds and the components to utilize them, it's not gonna change.

[where_i'm_calling_from]

The Aristocrat, on Apr 17 2006, 12:35 AM, said:

hmmm... big budget films... King Kong
hmmm... little budget films... Reservoir Dogs

The argument that the quality of films will go down because they're making less money is COMPLETE SHIT. If anything it will ensure a reliance of good scripts and quality acting, rather than ridiculously overpaid CGI studios and talentless fucking actors charging millions to passionleslly read out shitty lines written by a team of monkeys with typewriters.

Kirsten Dunce and Keanu Reeves are the real pirates of the film industry - not us.

I don't deny the current downloading trend is damaging the film industry. But fame, star culture and cookie-cutter 'blockbusters' poisoned it long before the Internet was invented. Only now, they're reaping what they've sown.

I just noticed what you did with her name. LOLZ!!11!1



no really.

[Gabriel Synthesis]

there are enough tracks available for download that played back to back once each you couldn't listen to them all in 2 lifetimes

it's not really relevant but i found it qi

it also means that you can people who tell you to diversify your music knowledge to stick it because it's impossible

[Forgone Conclusion]

Well it's still possib;e to diversify it. You don't need to listen to every band ever to be more diverse

Also, Mummy always told me I should share my things

[Gabriel Synthesis]

that's because your mummy hates you and wants you to end up in prison (eventually)

[Justin]

The Aristocrat, on Apr 16 2006, 11:35 PM, said:

hmmm... big budget films... King Kong
hmmm... little budget films... Reservoir Dogs

The argument that the quality of films will go down because they're making less money is COMPLETE SHIT. If anything it will ensure a reliance of good scripts and quality acting, rather than ridiculously overpaid CGI studios and talentless fucking actors charging millions to passionleslly read out shitty lines written by a team of monkeys with typewriters.

Kirsten Dunce and Keanu Reeves are the real pirates of the film industry - not us.

I don't deny the current downloading trend is damaging the film industry. But fame, star culture and cookie-cutter 'blockbusters' poisoned it long before the Internet was invented. Only now, they're reaping what they've sown.

Agree completly. One thing I have always pondered is the industry makes out every download is equal to a lost sale, this isn't necessarily true. I myself have downloaded things I would never buy, I download them simply because I could. So is the industry suffering as much as it makes out or not. I'm inclined to think they aren't suffering as much as they make out.


And let's be realistic, they are not going to stop making big budget movies because they think people will just download it, people still go to cinemas and people still buy DVD's, they make out there is a far worse crisis than there actually is.